Sanitary fittings possess, for example, water faucets with water outflows or other possibilities for allowing a user to obtain water. These types of water outflows provide a jet of water, the intensity of which and thus the quantity of flow per unit of time is adjusted by the user in a suitable way according to his needs. In this way, the user can manage the water jet pattern that the water flowing out of the water outflow offers to him.
The increasing awareness of the environment, on the one hand, and the rising costs for drinking water, on the other hand, have led to the circumstance that consumers have become increasingly interested in the question of water consumption. Every consumer and user is interested in consuming no more water than appears necessary or meaningful for a specific application purpose. At the same time, however, consumers and users would also like drinking water to be reliably available from the sanitary fixture in the necessary quantity and quality and thus fulfill its task. The water jet pattern shall also be optically pleasing and regular.
The question of water consumption is particularly essential in those places where drinking water or water for industrial use is relatively costly or only available in limited quantities, such as, for example, on board ships or other means of transport. Also, in those places where relatively large quantities of drinking water are regularly required and thus economically lead to considerable costs, this question plays a role, e.g., in the hotel field or in places where many people frequently wash their hands, e.g., in restaurants, swimming pools, hospitals and comparable facilities.
There is thus a considerable interest in making available the water exiting the water outflow to consumers and users in a particularly effective and useful manner.
A showerhead for this purpose is proposed in DE 35 10 107 C2. It possesses a nozzle piece with a housing, into which a spindle holder is inserted. A threaded borehole with an adjusting spindle screwed therein is found in the spindle holder. A blind borehole from which distributor channels are guided toward the outside is found in the adjusting spindle. Water flows into blind borehole 1 and from here flows out again via the lateral distributor channels. The distributor channels are closed to a varying degree, each time depending on the screwed-in depth of the adjusting spindle.
In this way, it is possible to establish a specific maximum discharge quantity by means of an adjustment produced once. By integrating the adjustable elements inside the nozzle piece, the circumstance is avoided that users may cause damage to the adjustability or disrupt the entire system due to a manual control.
Such a nozzle piece cannot be used for the intended purpose as a regulator of the water jet. For technical reasons, such a nozzle piece must be constructed with bushings, which leads to a considerable structural length of 50 mm. Such a design is no longer sufficient for today's requirements.
Another possibility, which is frequently desired with these types of nozzle pieces, is the possibility of mixing the outflowing liquid with air. Such a nozzle piece has already been proposed in CH Patent 315,823, in which a part that has a nozzle opening is inserted. A perforated hollow cone with its tip directed toward the nozzle opening is disposed coaxially to the nozzle opening. The space surrounding the hollow cone is connected to the external air. This leads to the circumstance that air is aspirated from the outside by the jet of liquid exiting the nozzle opening and divided by the hollow cone. Together with the liquid, this air is guided into the cone's inside space, which is joined to the outlet of the nozzle piece. A mixture of liquid and air is formed there. Due to the air in the liquid jet, the overall jet is several times larger than it would be without this aeration for an equally large consumption of liquid.
It is a disadvantage with such designs that the quantity ratios cannot be modified and also considerable depositions can build up on the inside.
At the present time, in many fields of application, such an intense aeration of the water jet of a water jet regulator is viewed as critical. In the case of water outflows in sensitive fields, such as in operating or operating prep rooms, in nurseries, in nursing homes, and also in all health-care facilities, it is increasingly desired to avoid aerosol formation. Aerosol formation in and at water outflows increases the risk of a Legionella infection. Conventional water jet regulators thus have the problem that, on the one hand, an aeration is desired in certain cases of application, but on the other hand, this aeration is to be absolutely avoided in other cases of application. These desires that are diametrically opposed to one another in the case of outflow fittings of sanitary facilities could not previously be fulfilled at the same time. Therefore, several variants of nozzle pieces or showerheads or similar devices must be provided for different cases of application, in order to be able to satisfy all requirements.
Even the question of metering of the water jet in outlet fittings has still not been worked out and leads to various proposals.
For these types of objectives, EP 0 693 970 B1 describes a water jet regulator and flow limiter for sanitary fittings. The corresponding product is also often used successfully in practice as an accessory part for sanitary fittings. The flow quantity at water outflows during use is optimally metered. Here, a device that divides the water jet, this device having a throttle plate and a cylindrical perforate plate forming a distributor space between them, is provided in a housing. The quantity of water that has already been pre-throttled by the cylindrical perforate plate is guided further to the consumer, the cylindrical perforate plate containing a device for fine throttling of the quantity of water. Downstream of the cylindrical perforate plate is also disposed a closed, annular helical spring, which performs a fine distribution of the water flowing through and the latter can appear to be an ordered water jet in the view of the user. The jet pattern is closed, but finely distributed.
The different metering possibilities and the ultrafine distribution ensure that for the consumer, the washing objective can be completely fulfilled not only sensitively, but also effectively, with an optimized, reduced quantity of water. The different adjusting possibilities make it possible for the installation to adapt a quantity of water from the sanitary fixture roughly measured to its dimensions, to the ratios that are present at the respective application site, for example, a sink, and to the local pressure ratios, so that by actuating the fittings provided on the sink, the user can then obtain an adjustment that is precisely adapted to his currently existing requirements. Usually, the user no longer changes the adjustment of the water jet regulator itself.
These often used and well proven regulating devices function at the usual water outflows or outlets of sanitary fittings. In each case, they fit into a specific water outlet and are constructed so that they can be mounted in or at this water outlet. Of course, over the course of the last few years, for technical reasons, but still more for purposes of a more modern design, new constructions for the water outlets of fittings have continually been introduced on the sanitary market. In the meantime, there are water outlets with very different diameters and also with different threaded uptakes, by means of which standard, not yet optimized water outlet elements can be incorporated in the water outlets.
The usual inner diameter of previous conventional water outlets is approximately 22 mm or 24 mm diameter. Other diameters appear with the increasingly widespread use of so-called design fittings. The trend shows that water outlets tend to have continually smaller diameters, whereby even diameters in the range of 14 mm or 16 mm can be achieved realistically.
There are also water outlets that do not possess a thread uptake inside, but have another type of fastening possibility.
This means that the regulating devices according to EP 0 693 970 B1 must be kept in stock in a plurality of different embodiments, in order to be able to incorporate these accessory parts into the respective different types of water outlets.
Costs and development expenses are increased thereby, since a new regulating device must be developed, produced and kept in stock for each water outlet coming onto the market and each new diameter of sanitary fittings.
It would be desirable if expenses for these could be reduced.
Therefore, it is a problem of the present invention to present a proposal for a regulating device for a water outflow, in particular, from sanitary fittings, by means of which the increasing costs of continuously new development of additional embodiments can be counteracted.